The three biggest mobile learning trends for 2019

As internet use on smartphones has surged beyond every other device, mobile strategies have become critical for training programs. Learn more about mobile learning trends here.

Companies need to deliver an exceptional experience to engage employees in training. As other smartphone experiences—online shopping, games, services, and more—have improved, employees' expectations of what “mobile learning” should mean have risen considerably.

Organizations can no longer simply shrink their desktop courses to fit a smartphone and call it mobile learning. Now more than ever, they need to follow the latest mobile learning trends to deliver a compelling experience.

Mobile coaching will be essential

With mobile coaching, employees always have a subject-matter expert within reach. Before an important sales launch, for example, employees can sign into their app and have a live video chat with a mentor or coach for last-minute advice and a confidence boost.

Employees can also search for and watch videos about best practices for the exact task they are about to perform. They can even record their own videos to practice a presentation or meeting, allowing coaches to watch, rate, and provide feedback.

This will be a trend in 2019 because mentoring is becoming increasingly important, as is the growing number of remote employees. The right technology allows companies to keep their workforce connected with mentors while providing more opportunities for real-time training.

Mobile micro-assessments to support knowledge retention

Training does not end when employees complete a course. At least not since the rise of microlearning and mobile micro-assessments, two mobile learning trends.

Corporate training managers can create short assessments with two or three questions, then schedule them to reach employees days, weeks, or even months after they finish a course, to assess how much knowledge they have retained.

This will be key in 2019, because research suggests that employees can forget up to 50% of what they have just learned within an hour, 70% within a day, and 90% within a month. This is especially critical for subjects such as safety.

New ways are therefore needed to keep earlier training material fresh without being intrusive or overly demanding. Mobile micro-assessments are the perfect solution for several reasons:

• They are short: answering takes no more than a few minutes, so employees can complete them quickly and return to work.
• They are convenient: receiving a message on a device people already use, such as their own mobile phones, considerably reduces the effort required.
• They bring an element of surprise. Employees cannot hide when they receive a notification or text message asking them to complete a micro-assessment. Setting a time limit also requires them to rely solely on their own knowledge.
• As results come in, you can identify the specific subject areas your workforce has forgotten, allowing you to edit existing courses or add supporting materials.

More companies will be able to incorporate augmented reality performance support

Performance support consists of any training material employees can access while working. Combined with augmented reality (AR), it reaches another level.

Despite corporate training teams' best efforts, 70% of employee learning happens beyond their reach, through on-the-job experience. That means a great deal of trial and error for companies that cannot afford many mistakes.

That is why companies such as Boeing and Airbus have implemented proprietary AR applications to give employees the help they need when building engines, troubleshooting repairs, or finding parts in a huge warehouse.

In 2019, however, this technology will no longer be limited to the largest companies. As smartphones become smarter and Apple and Google continue adding tools to their AR development kits, more companies will be able to create their own augmented reality experiences, available on employees' phones without the bulky headsets or smart glasses of the past.